Why should the number of types of matter stop at two? Maybe the ether quantum field has an infinite number of dimensions / degrees of freedom. We're using a bucket of them for our own universe (light). A parallel universe (dark) uses another bucket, but shares gravity with us. And then there's the mauve universe which doesn't interact with our own but does interact with the dark and cyan universes through the squiggly and squishy forces. And if we look close enough there may be two types of dark matter detectable by us.

I sense full employment for future particle physicists. We need a bigger particle accelerator to properly probe these alternate universes. (But see Einstein's Bridge as a cautionary tale.)

ZAZ:Why should the number of types of matter stop at two? Maybe the ether quantum field has an infinite number of dimensions / degrees of freedom. We're using a bucket of them for our own universe (light). A parallel universe (dark) uses another bucket, but shares gravity with us. And then there's the mauve universe which doesn't interact with our own but does interact with the dark and cyan universes through the squiggly and squishy forces. And if we look close enough there may be two types of dark matter detectable by us.

I sense full employment for future particle physicists. We need a bigger particle accelerator to properly probe these alternate universes. (But see Einstein's Bridge as a cautionary tale.)

I picture you having a goatee and fondling an agonizer while giving this speech.

ZAZ:Why should the number of types of matter stop at two? Maybe the ether quantum field has an infinite number of dimensions / degrees of freedom. We're using a bucket of them for our own universe (light). A parallel universe (dark) uses another bucket, but shares gravity with us. And then there's the mauve universe which doesn't interact with our own but does interact with the dark and cyan universes through the squiggly and squishy forces. And if we look close enough there may be two types of dark matter detectable by us.

I sense full employment for future particle physicists. We need a bigger particle accelerator to properly probe these alternate universes. (But see Einstein's Bridge as a cautionary tale.)

Darth_Lukecash:ZAZ: Why should the number of types of matter stop at two? Maybe the ether quantum field has an infinite number of dimensions / degrees of freedom. We're using a bucket of them for our own universe (light). A parallel universe (dark) uses another bucket, but shares gravity with us. And then there's the mauve universe which doesn't interact with our own but does interact with the dark and cyan universes through the squiggly and squishy forces. And if we look close enough there may be two types of dark matter detectable by us.

I sense full employment for future particle physicists. We need a bigger particle accelerator to properly probe these alternate universes. (But see Einstein's Bridge as a cautionary tale.)

I picture you having a goatee and fondling an agonizer while giving this speech.

big pig peaches:A question for the physicists on Fark: If I had a pile of dark matter in front of me, could I see it? Pick it up? Put it in a snow globe and make it rain dark matter on a miniture Statue of Liberty?

The problem looking at deep-field images is you have to remind yourself that you're looking into the distant past.

These galaxies are no longer in those positions and may not exist anymore in the form we see -- the further out we look, the older it is.

That's why 3D maps of the known universe are misleading because as you rotate it and move through them it bears no relation to the true current state or position of them.

If you did a thought experiment where light traveled so slowly on a human scale of distances -- e.g. if light took a century to travel the distance of the walls of the room you are in now -- you might see a tree or a cow that lived in the open field before your house was built instead of seeing your driveway or the previous occupant instead of a chair.

Dark matter is probably not made of anything you would notice if it were piled in front of you, except it couldn't be in a pile in front of you because it would fall through the surface of the earth.

There were theories of dark matter that had it composed of normal matter than you can touch. The term is "baryonic dark matter." Various tests have ruled out broad classes of baryonic dark matter. For example, if dark matter were made of stray planets we would notice a much higher rate of gravitational microlensing.

We can only speculate if the speculative dark matter in the article can even form piles. Physical constants have to be precisely tuned to allow a universe like ours, with stars and rocks and jellyfish. If dark matter is like ours but the strong and weak nuclear forces are a bit weaker, dark stars don't form. Dark black holes, maybe, but not dark stars. I assume the "no hair" law says dark black holes look like light black holes and decay into an equal mix of light and dark particles, which suggests an interesting way to test theories of dark matter. Create a black hole, count the decay products, measure the mass, and see if some mass goes missing. This is similar to how neutrinos were discovered.

We can also put some limits on what dark matter is by comparing theories of primordial nucleosynthesis to observed element abundances. Non-baryonic dark matter has to be something really weird.

lohphat:The problem looking at deep-field images is you have to remind yourself that you're looking into the distant past.

These galaxies are no longer in those positions and may not exist anymore in the form we see -- the further out we look, the older it is.

That's why 3D maps of the known universe are misleading because as you rotate it and move through them it bears no relation to the true current state or position of them.

If you did a thought experiment where light traveled so slowly on a human scale of distances -- e.g. if light took a century to travel the distance of the walls of the room you are in now -- you might see a tree or a cow that lived in the open field before your house was built instead of seeing your driveway or the previous occupant instead of a chair.

Speed of light really distorts things.

I'm not sure how that's relevant. The galaxies and related dark matter were in this state at some point in the past, and that state requires an explanation, thus inferring a "dark" (ugh) force.

big pig peaches:A question for the physicists on Fark: If I had a pile of dark matter in front of me, could I see it? Pick it up? Put it in a snow globe and make it rain dark matter on a miniture Statue of Liberty?

No, you wouldn't be able to pick it up. Theoretically, dark matter does not interact through the electromagnetic force (which is why we can't see it... it doesn't get "warm" and emit radiation like a stellar dust cloud).

It would most likely look invisible, pass through everything, and fall toward the center of the earth (since it still interacts gravitationally, which is the original reason why we think it's out there).

However, there are some dark matter candidates called "weakly interacting massive particles". These WIMPs may act like a massive neutrino, so perhaps they occasionally undergo weak nuclear interaction with other matter, but nonetheless would they would remain fairly invisible and "massless" to anyone trying to hold a clump of them in their hands.

lohphat:The problem looking at deep-field images is you have to remind yourself that you're looking into the distant past.

These galaxies are no longer in those positions and may not exist anymore in the form we see -- the further out we look, the older it is.

That's why 3D maps of the known universe are misleading because as you rotate it and move through them it bears no relation to the true current state or position of them.

If you did a thought experiment where light traveled so slowly on a human scale of distances -- e.g. if light took a century to travel the distance of the walls of the room you are in now -- you might see a tree or a cow that lived in the open field before your house was built instead of seeing your driveway or the previous occupant instead of a chair.

lohphat:The problem looking at deep-field images is you have to remind yourself that you're looking into the distant past.

These galaxies are no longer in those positions and may not exist anymore in the form we see -- the further out we look, the older it is.

That's why 3D maps of the known universe are misleading because as you rotate it and move through them it bears no relation to the true current state or position of them.

If you did a thought experiment where light traveled so slowly on a human scale of distances -- e.g. if light took a century to travel the distance of the walls of the room you are in now -- you might see a tree or a cow that lived in the open field before your house was built instead of seeing your driveway or the previous occupant instead of a chair.

ZAZ:Why should the number of types of matter stop at two? Maybe the ether quantum field has an infinite number of dimensions / degrees of freedom. We're using a bucket of them for our own universe (light). A parallel universe (dark) uses another bucket, but shares gravity with us. And then there's the mauve universe which doesn't interact with our own but does interact with the dark and cyan universes through the squiggly and squishy forces. And if we look close enough there may be two types of dark matter detectable by us.

I sense full employment for future particle physicists. We need a bigger particle accelerator to properly probe these alternate universes. (But see Einstein's Bridge as a cautionary tale.)

Eh? If you're suggesting physicists are making this up just to get money, you...

... You really have no idea what makes people get into science, do you?

/Hint: If their primary concern was making lots of money, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE BECOME PHYSICISTS.

What? WHAT? You are seriously naive. You think that physicists spend all their time pushing paper, managing the buildings, hiring and firing support personnel, and attending funding and grant meetings? Nope, They have people for that. These are the science managers. The professionals who manage the actual scientists. These people (generally) may or (sometimes) may not have a science background; if they do, they are, in fact, not happy doing that. They're after the money. And the empires.

ZAZ:Why should the number of types of matter stop at two? Maybe the ether quantum field has an infinite number of dimensions / degrees of freedom. We're using a bucket of them for our own universe (light). A parallel universe (dark) uses another bucket, but shares gravity with us. And then there's the mauve universe which doesn't interact with our own but does interact with the dark and cyan universes through the squiggly and squishy forces. And if we look close enough there may be two types of dark matter detectable by us.

So what you are saying is there may be no interaction between the plaid and paisley planes of reality and our own?

Eh? If you're suggesting physicists are making this up just to get money, you...

... You really have no idea what makes people get into science, do you?

/Hint: If their primary concern was making lots of money, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE BECOME PHYSICISTS.

What? WHAT? You are seriously naive. You think that physicists spend all their time pushing paper, managing the buildings, hiring and firing support personnel, and attending funding and grant meetings? Nope, They have people for that. These are the science managers. The professionals who manage the actual scientists. These people (generally) may or (sometimes) may not have a science background; if they do, they are, in fact, not happy doing that. They're after the money. And the empires.

Every physicist seemingly harbours a not-at-all secret desire to discover a new form of matter, and the attached Nobel prize. Hence they throw out a description of a proposed new form every time an experimental result looks at all novel. The principle being that there is nothing to lose from being wrong (everyone else is doing it so no-one minds) and a hell of a lot to gain from being right.

ZAZ:Why should the number of types of matter stop at two? Maybe the ether quantum field has an infinite number of dimensions / degrees of freedom. We're using a bucket of them for our own universe (light). A parallel universe (dark) uses another bucket, but shares gravity with us. And then there's the mauve universe which doesn't interact with our own but does interact with the dark and cyan universes through the squiggly and squishy forces. And if we look close enough there may be two types of dark matter detectable by us.

I sense full employment for future particle physicists. We need a bigger particle accelerator to properly probe these alternate universes. (But see Einstein's Bridge as a cautionary tale.)

Nem Wan:Loved this game and its absolutely amazing modding community back in the day.[images2.wikia.nocookie.net image 300x383]

Indeed. I re-bought it years later as part of a Steam deal. It hasn't really aged well. I wanted to play the whole series but they don't seem to play nicely with modern graphics hardware.

/also loved the Jedi Knight/Jedi Academy series and KOTOR//wonders what he'll think of Mass Effect in 10 years time -- it's pretty awesome now, but who knows how it'll age?///having everything require online activation and whatnot these days pretty much kills off any plans for games to have a lifespan of more than 10 years or so. This is a bad thing.

Geez Louise, you'd think these guys never saw anti-gravity before? They write like they never took a class in 22nd Century Picophysics.

The magnetic deflection of the qQ-type fractured particles is way too weak to be detected optically. If they would just re-route the power from their wide-spectrum magnetometer back into the forward deflection array a simple level 3 diagnostic would show the irregularities.

After that you're just a hacked Heisenberg compensator away from making it so: Flip polarity of the in-stream Baryon particles and voila! You can create a reverse tachyon field using a phased-photon particle emitter to focus your readings. The results will be so apparent a 2nd year Quantum Engineering major could write the dissertation.